Miki Takeo’s Initiative on the Korean Question and U.S.-Japanese Diplomacy, 1974-1976

Abstract

In the mid-1970s, Japanese Prime Minister Miki Takeo actively promoted mediation diplomacy and passionately worked for a solution to the Korean question through great power guarantees from the United States and China. He sent his intermediary to Pyongyang and advocated dialogue between the United States and North Korea as well as between South and North Korea. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, however, worried that Miki’s initiative could destabilize the favorable equilibrium for the United States and South Korea by either isolating the South Koreans or making them seem American puppets. Particularly, after the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, Washington remained receptive to South Korea, which worried that Japanese support would strengthen North Korea. The Chinese, while supporting Pyongyang’s diplomatic stance, also remained reluctant to join any bold diplomatic initiative. Miki made little significant progress apart from several rounds of frank exchange of views with American leaders. Still, these discussions between American and Japanese leaders demonstrate the nature and persistence of Japan’s concerns on the Korean question.